Criminal justice reporter

Derrick Johnson was head cook at Allen’s Hamburgers when the popular eatery on Hawthorne Avenue closed last year.

Some people might also remember the outgoing 34-year-old from when he worked at Locos Grill & Pub and other local restaurants.

Those who know Johnson say he was a hard-working man and loving father, which is how friends and loved ones hope he’ll be remembered no matter the circumstances that led to his murder Friday night.

“Derrick was a great man,” said his wife, Sheneke Bugg.

“He worked long hours, sometimes from 9 in the morning until 9 or 10 at night because he wanted to support his kids,” she said.

The couple were separated, but Bugg held hopes they might one day reunite as a family. They had four children together, and Johnson treated as his own Bugg’s three kids from a previous relationship.

The last time Bugg saw her husband was about 9:45 p.m. Friday when, she said, they met so that Johnson could give some money to his youngest daughter, 11-year-old Makhya Johnson. He planned to spend time with her the next day.

“The last thing Derrick said was when he said to Makhya, ‘I’ll see you in the morning when I pick you up,’” according to Bugg.

But the girl never again saw her father.

About 8:30 a.m. Saturday, someone walking their dogs found Johnson’s body in a field off a dirt road in Oglethorpe County. He’d been shot multiple times, according to authorities, who would not discuss possible motives for the murder.

But Jesse Fonda, who lived with Johnson on Little Oak Street and considered the murdered man his best friend, thinks that Johnson may have gotten involved with the wrong people because of hard times.

“Derrick has worked his whole life, paying taxes, since he was 14 years old, but ever since Allen’s closed and he lost his job, Derrick wasn’t able to find work,” said Fonda, who became friends with Johnson about seven years ago when they were co-workers at Locos on Timothy Road.

“I’m not justifying what he did, because it was totally wrong, but he sold pills on the side because there’s no way you can live on $94 a week and make child support payments without ending up homeless and living in a trash can,” Fonda said.

“Derrick fell on hard times and did what he had to do to survive,” he said. “He was no thug, or whatever some people might say about him. That man was a teddy bear who never argued or fought with anybody, and when I spoke with the GBI a couple of times I could not give them one name to go to and say, ‘This guy does not like Derrick Johnson.’”

Johnson, who didn’t use drugs himself, tried to help Fonda beat his addiction to pain pills and heroin, Fonda said.

Donald Valeska and Johnson quickly became friends when they worked together at Allen’s.

“Derrick had this infectious personality and was someone you just wanted to be around,” Valeska said.

“I was going through a separation at the time and Derrick was always telling me to keep my head up,” he recalled. “He was this very compassionate guy who genuinely cared about his friends, and if you were having a hard day at work or whatever, he would always say or do something to pick you back up.”

Valeska’s heartbreak over his friend’s murder is compounded by thoughts about how some people have written off Johnson’s death as a just another casualty of the streets.

“I understand he’s done some bad things, but ultimately this was a human being and a father, someone with hopes and dreams, and he didn’t deserve to die like that,” he said.